Rebecca Somerville discusses the Goddess in Yoga

A trip through The Goddess: Divine Energy exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in January this year, revealed her many manifestations - as divine mother, fearless warrior, diabolical annihilator of ego, protectress, healer, symbol of fertility and renewal and ultimately, as the principle of dynamic energy through which everything in existence functions.

According to Vedic cosmology (samkhya) which shares many of its doctrines with yoga, the One (supreme cosmic spirit known as Brahman), in order to experience itself, undergoes an initial split by forming a male polarity (God: Brahma, Siva, Vishnu, Purusha), which immediately creates a female polarity (Goddess: Devi, Parvati, Lakshmi, Prakruti). The arrival of this active feminine energy on the scene initiates an explosion of creativity that expands to form the universe and all that it contains. This idea is paralleled in other mystical paths too, that describe the casting out or splitting off of the divine feminine energy so that creation can occur. In Kabbalah, this creative feminine force is known as Shekinah. The Bible describes her as Eve (although the casting out has been misinterpreted as banishment rather than expression). In science, this idea is synonymous with the expansion of the universe ensuing from the Big Bang.

This idea is also supported in pithy Taoist style in chapter 42 of the Tao de Ching, where it states: "Tao gives birth to the One, the One gives birth to Two, and from Two emerges Three. Three gives birth to all the things. All things carry the Yin and the Yang, deriving their vital harmony from the proper blending of the two vital forces." Whatever names or numbers we give her,

The Goddess represents the creative force in the universe - the fuel for evolution. The timeless analogy of a spider spinning a web out of thread that comes from her own body gives us a clue to her function in yogic cosmology. As web spinner, she is the creative force and as webbing, she is the world of form itself. She sits at the heart of every yoga practitioner and hers is the path that we follow on our journey of reunification. This is why Devi or Maha Devi and her manifest energy (Shakti) are so revered in yoga.

In a cosmic scale, the One is represented by the God Brahman and, on a human scale, it is the state of enlightenment. The male/female polarity that develops out of that One is echoed throughout creation and represented in differing ways to appeal to our individuality. The male polarity is represented, for example, by Krishna, Siva, Vishnu, the consonants in the Sanskrit alphabet, the right side of the body, the left side of the brain and underpinning all of these are its affinity with structure, form, and the idea that it is the base from which the feminine energy extends. The female polarity represented by Radha, Shakti, Lakshmi, the vowels in the Sanskrit alphabet, the left side of the body, the right side of the brain, for example, connotes fluidity, creativity, function, and the divine energy that creates life from the male "seed".

In yoga and Hinduism, the Maha Devi has a multitude of names for her many forms. There is a goddess for every attribute that we need to realise and explore in order to become conscious of our Oneness again.

This is why the yoga path is an exercise in learning about oneself. It is not an egocentric practice - on the contrary, the more we know ourselves, the more of a communion we make with all of existence, with the great Goddess herself.

The AGNSW exhibition celebrated the manifold ways in which the great Goddess has been depicted by yogins, Buddhists and the Nepalese over the centuries, in order to appeal to the different levels of our consciousness.

The Goddess and her numerous manifestations are represented figuratively to best appeal to our emotional mind, so that we are easily able to form a connection with one or many of her attributes. She is portrayed as a beautifully adorned female figure, the personification of compassion, or wrath, or charity, or abundance, for example. These icons are pregnant with symbology - lotus flowers for transcendence, medicinal herbs for healing, water pitchers for fertility and so on - both for their aesthetic appeal and to trigger an awakening in the mind of the devotee, and help to bring a particular energy to consciousness.

To appeal to the deeper psyche, she is also represented in abstract (yantric) form and in her vibrational/essential (mantric) form. For example, Sri Yantra, is known as the 'mother' of all yantras, from which all others are derived. It is the abstract symbol for creation and comprises a series of nine interpenetrating triangles (five descending, (representing the female polarity and four ascending, representing the male polarity). If meditation on this form doesn't blow your mind, it will help integrate the many factions of your consciousness back to its original state of unification, represented in the yantra by a central dot (bindu).

Our enlightenment is therefore the distillation of our experience back to its essence. We take it from its complicated outer form, we remove the impurities and reduce it, through the eight limbs of yoga, back to its blueprint. Or to put it in the context of divine energy, Maha Devi expands into the many worlds and forms, right down to the tiniest of creatures, like us. We are fragments of her eternal form. On our journey towards enlightenment, by integrating her principle energies, we are restoring her original form and ultimately reuniting her with her beloved God.

Rebecca Somerville is a yoga teacher in Sydney NSW.